How to Obsolete Product

[Former Member]

My organization just complete a product rationalization project and we want to obsolete several of our materials within our product master. I am having some difficulty in finding where in SAP ByDesign where to accomplish this task. Anyone out there in the community have any success with something like this?

[hayesa]

Any business should be judge of whether they still are going to make/purchase a product or not. Agreed you need to ensure all open transactions are completed before changing the status but it still should be available.

We have thousands of lines and lines of obsolete inventory items on reports we can't get rid of, despite having no outstanding value nor available quantities. I created extension fields to exclude those items, so people don't have to trail through products that no longer exist.

[arjun_t_h]

Hi Andrew,

Unfortunately, the functionality to delete/obsolete master data once it is setup (or saved) is not available currently. So, you can`t delete a fully or partially created Material or Service Product. It is also not possible to delete this from the database as this would require lot of follow up and might lead to data inconsistencies like in Business Intelligence Reports etc.

As a workaround you can keep the unwanted product in blocked status so that it can`t be used in any business process.

Steps to block a Product:

1. Go to Product Data work center.
2. Select Materials or Services view.
3. Select a Material or Service.
4. Select View All button.
5. Go to respective Business area tab (Purchasing and Sales).
6. Change the status from Active to Blocked.

   Material:

   Once a Material is activated for Purchasing, Logistics, Planning, Availability Confirmation, Sales and Valuation, then it is allowed to block the Material only for Purchasing and Sales. The status of Logistics, Planning, Availability Confirmation, and Valuation are not

   allowed to block.

   The reason for this behavior is, if the Material is used for Logistics, Planning, Availability Confirmation, and Valuation, blocking the status will end up in inconsistencies in the Business transaction Documents whichever uses the Material. So, in general it is not allowed to block the status of Material for Logistics, Planning, Availability Confirmation, and Valuation.

   But, once you block the Material for Purchasing and Sales, then those Materials are never used for Sales and Purchasing. Which means no new entries of these materials can be created in the system. But Material which have already in Logistics (or in any SCM process) will remain unaffected.

   Note: If the material is in In Preparation status, you need to change the status to Active, then you can change to Blocked.

   Service:

   Once a Service is activated for Purchasing, Sales and Valuation, then it is allowed to block the Material only for Purchasing and Sales. The status of Valuation is not allowed to block.

   The reason for this behavior is, if the Service is used for Valuation, blocking the status will end up in inconsistencies in the Business transaction Documents whichever uses the Service. So, in general it is not allowed to block the status of Service for Valuation.

   But, once you block the Service for Purchasing and Sales, then those Service are never used for Sales and Purchasing. Which means no new entries of these Services can be created in the system.

   Note: If the Service is in In Preparation status, you need to change the status to Active, then you can change to Blocked.

   Regards,

   Arjun

[former_member492864]

We recently "Blocked" the item from the Material Master for purchasing and sales but still can be ordered thru "Project Stock Order".

Is there a way to block it so our project managers wont be able to order it thru Project Managemnet Work Centre.?

[Former Member]

Hi Andrew,

Products do not have a single overall status, so there's a couple of things you will need to do.

You'll want to start by making the relevant products inactive for sales. You can do this either from the "Product and Service Portfolio" or from the "Product Data" workcenters.

You will either need to open each concerned product individually, de "Edit" -> "View All" and on the "Sales Data" tab change the status for each Sales Organization/Distribution Channel to "Blocked".

If you can filter the relevant products, you can do a "Mass Update", which allows you to update various characteristics for multiple products in one go.

At a later stage, where all your retired products are no longer "in flight" on sales orders, purchase orders, etc...., you might consider de-activating other master data such as Purchasing (if used), Planning, Valuation, etc...

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Eelco